Nickelodeon’s hit animated show “Avatar: The Last Airbender” ended it’s third series strong, scoring the series highest ratings ever and earning the number one spot on broadcast and basic cable for kids and tweens. This was the result of the two hour season finale “Sozin’s Comet” which was the conclusion of a week of brand new episodes. All together these episodes were seen by an incredible 19.0 million viewers combined.

Source: Animation Insider

Cartoon Network is beginning production of a live action/CGI telefilm based on the hit animated series “Ben 10: Alien Force” directed by Alex Winter and written by John Turman. The movie will be produced in much the same manner as last November’s “Ben 10: Race Against Time” which Winter also directed. This film however, will follow the chronology of the recently released “Ben 10: Alien Force” which debuted last April as the networks most watched original series among kids 6-11. The film is currently in preproduction and casting is underway.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

This past weekend, “The Dark Knight” earned a record breaking $158.3 million outing previous record holder “Spider-Man 3″ which earned $151.1 million in May of 2007. The success of “The Dark Knight” also helped make this past weekend the biggest three-day weekend ever in terms of total grosses with $250 million breaking the $218.4 million record set July 2007 when “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” debuted. It was aided on the latter by “Mama Mia” which broke the record for top grossing musical and earned a respectable $26.8 million. “Space Chimps” was less successful, earning only $7.3 million in its debut.

Article from Variety

The new “Clone Wars” film certainly contains all of the characters, lightsaber sounds, and John Williams music as the previous trilogy, but according to David Filoni the director, what it lacks is that movie’s darker tone. Instead, the goal is to make it more like the original trilogy, filled with swashbuckling fun and a sense of humor.

“Telling that dark story of Anakin Skywalker was important for George, but this was a chance to show Anakin before that. Anakin as a hero, Anakin as the good guy, Anakin more like his son,” Luke Skywalker, of the original trilogy.

To that end, Anakin has been retooled into a hybrid of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, who exchanges witty banter with old favorites like Obi Wan, as well as new characters like Ahsoka, Anakin’s new apprentice, Jabba’s sinister uncle, or the wide variety of Clone Soldiers that are in the film.

And the film certainly features distinct visuals, a style that is a combination of japanese animation and the old “Thunderbirds” TV show that gives it a painterly aspect. However, there is nothing to fear.

“A lot of people have said to me that have seen it _ well, the few people that have seen it at this point _ that they feel like they’re watching `Star Wars,’” Filoni said. “They feel like they’re seeing those characters again. Even though we’ve done this style that’s painterly, if you want to call it that, it’s still `Star Wars.’”

Fans have been eagerly anticipating the first look at Zach Snyder’s adaptation of “Watchmen”, and now Empire has the trailer that will run with the “Dark Knight”. “Watchmen” is the movie adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name that is widely regarded as the best graphic novel ever made. It tells the tale of a group of retired costumed heroes who return from retirement after one of their retired contemporaries is killed.

The nominees for the 2008 Emmy’s have been announced.

ANIMATED PROGRAM (less than one hour)

“Creature Comforts America” - (”Don’t Choke To Death, Please”) (CBS)

“King Of The Hill” - (”Death Picks Cotton”) (Fox)

“Robot Chicken” - (”Robot Chicken: Star Wars”) (Cartoon Network)

“The Simpsons” - (”Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind”) (Fox)

“SpongeBob SquarePants” - (”Inmates of Summer / Two Faces of Squidward”) (Nickelodeon)

ANIMATED PROGRAM (one hour or more)

“Family Guy” - (”Blue Harvest”) (Fox)

“Justice League: The New Frontier” - (Warner Bros. on demand)

“South Park” - (”Imaginationland”) (Comedy Central)

Congratulations to these and the rest of the nominees!

Source

Animation Magazine reports that Sony’s new animated sitcom “Sit Down, Shut Up” is back in production after the writers walked out asking that they be granted a WGA contract.

Deadline Hollywood cites sources that say Sony lured most of the scribes back with bonuses including pay bumps of as much as $200,000. Two writers, Bill Oakley and Ken Keeler, are apparently the only holdouts. The show is back in production under the jurisdiction of IATSE Local 839, also known as the Animation Guild.

Initially the writers turned down the pay bump back in June, but agreed to return when they were offered “WGA-parity residual protections for themselves and future writers” on the show.

RottenTomatoes has posted some great exclusive Pixar articles in the past few days.  The first article, “The World of Wall-E”, talks in-depth with Andrew Stanton, David DeVan, and 6 other creators of the film.  Each person includes their take on why Wall-E is such an important film to Pixar, and the unique problems they had to solve by making a feature-length robot love story.

Today, RT posted an exclusive interview with Derek Thompson, story artist on Wall-E.  He shares some storyboards from the film, and explains the how the story department works at Pixar.

And if that’s not enough Pixar for you, check out RT’s photos of their Tour of Pixar Studios.

In the midst of the 2004 presidential election two brothers, Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, created a video called “This Land”, which featured disembodied heads of John Kerry and George W. Bush singing atop animated bodies. It soon went viral and launched the brother’s website JibJab.com. Since then, over 12 million people have downloaded their videos which range from greeting cards to other political videos. Now, the two are back again with a new video featuring Obama and McCain entitled “It’s Time for Some Campaigning”, a parody of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’”. Link to the Video

Source

Variety has begun reporting on Comic-Con ‘08 today.  They have an entire section of their online news dedicated to this year’s line-up of Hollywood celebs and artists who will be in attendance.  Current articles include one on Joss Whedon and a “made-for”web” musical, and another on the hype surrounding Frank Miller’s “Spirit”.  You can also browse through photos of Comic-Cons past.  Keep heading back for exclusive updates and images of this year’s spectacle.